The truth about sailing Greece and Turkey

The guy giving you the mooring screams at you frantically when you are trying to make sense of the knotted bunch of two combined mooring lines he just threw at you, while your boat drifts with a nice 30 knots right onto your new neighbours.

The marina staff (Rhodes Marina – but honestly, could have been any other…) is so welcoming, service-oriented and friendly that they cannot even arrange for the fuel tanker to arrive on the day of your departure, instead ruining half of the one day you have to explore Rhodes, forcing you into tight and dangerous marina manoeuvres (yes, of course, with kids on board) at a lovely increasing 30 knots of meltemi kisses. Am I not supposed to be the customer if I’m ridding myself of 300 Euros for a service?

Before receiving any service in the new marina which hasn’t even installed its showers yet, you are asked to pay RIGHT NOW and UPFRONT!!!

Rubbish greeting you in tons in every bay you sail in.

The taxi driver is about the grumpiest person you’ve ever met on the planet and almost starts a fight when you want to pay him and don’t have the exact change.

Being the only ones in a restaurant, it still takes them half an hour to take your order (with eyes rolled) and another half hour to serve some nibbles, a few drinks and a (admittedly very nice!) nagile.

The waiter starts cursing at you (of course with more eye rolling and ‘tss’ and ‘ouff’ and ‘all too much’ kind of noises) when your two year old breaks an ash tray.

Food, drinks, buses, rental cars and a heap of other prices quadrupled.

The ticket guy on the bus almost kicks you out because your toddler is crying.

Supposedly fresh food from the markets goes bad the next day.

No matter where there’s zero effort made to increase economic activity, make the customer feel welcome and provide a fair and welcoming service.

In the average chandlery they shake their head ‘no’ at you before you’ve even finished your sentence as to what you are after.

You go for a run and all you can see for twenty minutes along a dirt road is three metres of rubbish on either side of the road. You can literally hear the earth crying out: Why are you doing this to me? I’m treating you so well; delicious olives, unique island paradise, incredible ruins… and this is how you treat me in return?

All the glory seems to lie in long past history.

You barely make it back from a run with a twisted ankle, obviously in pain, yet no one on the road would even bother asking if you need help.

… I could go on, but someone told me once if you don’t have anything positive to say, then better don’t say anything at all. The above, though, I just couldn’t hold back. Excuse my honesty.

Yes, we are back in Greece, and yes, I do miss Turkey where

You are received with a friendly smile everywhere you go.

People go out of their way to help you out and make provide an excellent service.

Life is hustling and buzzling at every corner.

The past is cherished, while the present embraced and the future welcomed.

The food is diverse, delicious and cheap and eating out can sometimes be cheaper than cooking on the boat.

Breath-taking markets are a living prove of aliveness.

And finally a disclaimer, yes, we’ve seen a lot of Greece (the Ionian, the Peloponnese, the Cyclades, the Dodecanese and now Crete) and yes, there are also good sides to it, like the occasional friendly person, Rhodes being an exceptionally beautiful city, Crete seeming a fraction more friendly and switched on than the rest of the country, our journey west bringing us closer to Malta, Marocco, Spain and Gibraltar and, last but not least, we’ve been able to catch up with our cruising family friends on Maya which has easily been another highlight of the past two years in the Med.

Both countries have exceptional sailing grounds from a purely geographical point of view, but if I had to chose between one of them, I wouldn’t have to think for a second! Maya, enjoy Turkey! We’ll be waiting for you over the pond.

Another beautiful interview, this time with the amazing Shevonne Hunt from Kinderling Radio in Sydney. She’s found her passion and when it comes to her interviews and podcasts, you know Shevonne’s found her Dharma, her path in life, as not only her eyes, but every cell of her body sparkles. Encounters like that make me happy. Thanks Shevonne and everyone else, enjoy the short and sweet 10 minute interview.

Related

It feels like a long time ago, and at the same time like yesterday. Before baby #3 pops out, closing a chapter, I had to put together our last sailing video from the three years we spent in the Mediterranean. Looking at it, it sometimes feels like the last summer before my life started falling apart… and here we are, slowly putting the pieces together again, trying to make sense of that big jig-saw puzzle that is life – to embrace whatever, whenever and wherever adventures the future has on hold for us. Namaste and love from Sydney.

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Wrapping up a tough but rewarding week of boatyard work, with Happy Dancer back in the water we’ve started to turn out attention Westwards. It’ll be going that way for a looong time (How many miles to Australia?) and after Greece, we’ll stop over in Malta again for a few days to provision big times on all the good stuff from tons of nori and nato, over pools full of coconut juice, plus the other bits and odds like lucuma powder, chia seeds and, of course, veggie mite.

With another crossing soon ahead, what a better time to have a glance back at our five days leaving Malta for Greece and Turkey. Enjoy the video of five days aboard with kids and no wind.

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It’s been exactly one month since we left our winter home of seven months in Malta’s Msida Creek. And what a month it’s been – following an amazing and productive winter. While mum and dad were topping up the kitty, healing Happy Dancer‘s little age-related wounds and connecting with the local yoga community, the kids had fun. LOTS of fun as this little video shows. Enjoy and remember – we always love to hear from readers!

Last weekend we received our official Welcome Ceremony at the Narara Eco Village, an hour north of Sydney. A long time has passed since I have written regularly, partially due to more time spend turning inwards, partially due to lots of yoga teaching, retreats and workshops which – together with the homeschooling of my three, a sailing boat to loath and love, freelance writing commitment and, yes, believe it or not, time to meditate and dance – left my blogging tank empty.

Right now, however, I’m feeling a new wave of sharing enthusiasm as the sangha, my community, whether in yoga, at the Village, amongst fellow sailors and far out into this world with you, is after all something that gives me energy and joy. As such, let me share the beautiful poem we were welcomed with at Narara as we walked through the welcoming spiral. I hope it makes your heart beat faster, just like it did with mine.

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Re-reading several of the old Yoga scriptures has been the literacy guideline for my year so far. As such I am ploughing through Desikachar’s Heart of Yoga and although I’d love to quote almost all, this is one every part of me resonates with:

We can never experience our real nature if we do not expose ourselves to change. That is why we must test ourselves sometimes by doing something completely different.

Have you done anything different yet this year? or are planning something which you’ve never done before?

#welovecomments

Few spots left for our Bali Yoga Retreat this April: https://sailingyogafamily.com/yoga/yoga-retreats-2/blissful-bali-yoga-retreat-april2017/

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A friend sent me a scientific article this morning which seemed to prove how optimistic feelings and moods influence positively on the body’s physcial health and well-being. More specifically, the feeling of being in awe was linked to reducing inflammation in the body.

It’s interesting how science more and more proves what is pretty obvious when you live ‘in tune’. Sailors would know that despite the challenges of living among the most hostile environments, there’s not much to beat sunrises at Sea. Parents would know there’s not much that beats that first little smile or gaze of a newborn. Anyone, who embraces live to the fullest would know, that being in awe can be a daily, casual thing which enhances our health and well-being on so many levels. So turn off your device (I’d say it’s pretty unlikely to find that feeling through a screen…) and look around you. Notice something to be in awe of?

With love, lightness and gratitude. Dini

Related

Receiving mail is sort of an issue when cruising. Urgent stuff like new boat bits we get sent to the next reliable place we stop and where we have some contacts – either a reliable marina, friends or something similar. The little of the regular mail which couldn’t be turned electronic gets sent to my granny who just called me super excitedly. This is how I found out I’m on the cover picture of the the current Compass’ Cover Page: The Moody Owner’s Association (fantastic club – couldn’t praise them enough and so glad to be part of it!) quarterly magazine. The little joys and surprises of life as you sit in a Crete Cafe and put together info for your next Yoga Retreat on Tenerife in the Canary Islands in November😉

Blog Stats

Travelling yogini. Free spirit. Skipper of Happy Dancer. Mother of three angels. Ayurvedic practitioner. Yin and vinyasa yoga teacher. Acro yoga lover. Experienced doula. Sustainability dudess. Lunatic dancer. Tarot card reader. Passionate writer... I love sharing big and small steps of our journey: Living the dream.
When we are not sailing the world on Happy Dancer, we stop to teach yoga, connect with local communities, dive right into a place, its peoples and cultures and bring joy and encouragement for others to live their dreams.
Believing in the power of one's dreams is what drives me, and having the power to bring dreams alive is what keeps me going. Enjoy the ride and please do get in touch to share your dreams. We love likes, comments and emails - or radio us on VHF, dance with us at a festival or join one of my yoga retreats!